Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay is speaking out after some of her constituents implied she is a hypocrite, after she commented during this week's meeting that her daughter was in the hospital with a serious case of COVID-19.
"I'm just giving a warning to those in the community, do not come up to this podium today and try to tell me that this is a virus that doesn't need to be taken seriously."
McKinlay said that for six months she had heard from members of the community downplaying the coronavirus and that she wouldn't have any of it on this day.
"I don't want to hear anything about underground media reports or anything from quack denier doctors."
In response to that, Boca Raton resident Rachel Eade, who has pushed for reopening shuttered businesses and joined a lawsuit against the county’s mask mandate, posted to her public Facebook page pictures that 19-year-old Annika Fritsch recently posted to her public Instagram account. They appear to show her not following the guidelines for someone with COVID-19.
Commissioner McKinlay lashed out on her County Commission Facebook page an expletive to call out Eade and others who commented about her daughter, using an expletive.
She wrote in part: "To All the ***holes out there who think my daughter's old video lip synching a silly song with one of her best friends that she recorded with her roommate in her living room a few weeks ago who assume WRONGLY that she was out in Orlando while having COVID, you are SICK." The commissioner concluded her post, writing "I don’t give a damn if you don’t vote for me again. Your vote isn’t one I want."
When asked by our CBS 12 partners for comment about her Facebook post, McKinlay said "The only think I would have to say to those people is shame on you. In politics, I can talk about the experiences of my child as they relate to the conversation, but the public has never gone after politicians' children and I'm disgusted that they did this."
She also says those are old photos.
"They should have left my daughter out of this. They should not be stalking the social media accounts of a 19-year old college student who's done nothing to them."
McKinlay says she does not regret how she responded on Facebook, including the expletive she used.
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Photo: CBS 12